Contents of SD2 vanish occasionally (FiiO X5iii)

Support questions for Neutron Player only.
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theSplund
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Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:20 pm

Contents of SD2 vanish occasionally (FiiO X5iii)

Post by theSplund » Sun Sep 20, 2020 10:16 am

This has happened a few times now, but not as often that I can really determine what is actually going on: basically 9/10 times, or more, I can pause the player and walk away for a short while with no problems but there have been a handful of times that when I return I see that Neutron has restarted itself and lost sight of SD2 (second SD card) and it takes a while for it to rediscover it. The card is clearly visible via the FiiO settings and in a file explorer.
I an attempt to track this problem down I split the sources into individual selectable entires, rather than a collection of paths against a single entry - this made it clear that it was just one of the two SD cards (ie SD2) vanishing that was effectively halving my library.
Background: I've only had NeutronMP for a couple of months now (and whilst there is room for improvements it's the best mp for the X5iii IMHO). I've not had a problem with the stock FiiO media player, nor with GoneMad MP and I've had the player for a couple of years now and not noticed anything similar. And naturally, as it's an X5iii it's not got anything else running on it!
Anyone else experienced this or have any thoughts?

blaubär
Posts: 3313
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2019 6:48 am

Re: Contents of SD2 vanish occasionally (FiiO X5iii)

Post by blaubär » Sun Sep 20, 2020 11:54 am

Could you switch the cards ? So that we see whether it's the slot or the card ?

Pepe
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2020 5:27 pm

Re: Contents of SD2 vanish occasionally (FiiO X5iii)

Post by Pepe » Sun Sep 20, 2020 6:07 pm

A mí también me pasa lo mismo en un FiiO X5 III, la SD2 desaparece y hay que reiniciar para que la vuelva a detectar

[ translated by mod via google : The same thing happens to me on a FiiO X5 III, the SD2 disappears and you have to restart to detect it again ]

blaubär
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Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2019 6:48 am

Re: Contents of SD2 vanish occasionally (FiiO X5iii)

Post by blaubär » Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:01 pm

It seems there are known issues with SD cards on FIIO X5III, see FiiO X5 III SD card issues
The chip that Fiio uses in the x5iii is not capable of supporting the two micro sd slots. As a result they basically hacked it in order to get them both to mount. This is why you'll see differences in behavior between the two card slots.

WitzyZed
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Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 8:49 pm

Re: Contents of SD2 vanish occasionally (FiiO X5iii)

Post by WitzyZed » Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:18 pm

I can also attest to this with my X5iii & Neutron and it has something to do with FiiO’s implementing of the second SD card slot.

Quoting the knowledgeable “Prispewnic” who made the custom kernel for X5iii: This is not a feature of an android, but a separate chip for a second SD card. To save energy, when idle, it goes to sleep (DACs work according to the same principle), after which the card falls off. (Translated from Russian to English)

So this is not a Neutron specific issue yet it tends to appear most often when using neutron UNLESS... you disable automatic library scans in Neutron. What I do is make both SD cards slots a single media library source in Neutron, & then make sure the LED for automatic rescans is disabled, and also the LED next to the SD cards (in Settings-> Media Library-> Sources). To update Neutron’s database with your cards contents just enable the LED/Button to scan it all in and disable the LED/Button when the scanning is done. This seems to prevent the second tray from “falling off” after the player goes into idle and only shows you the first card’s contents. If anything the now playing screen will appear blank when Neutron is resumed but after going to library everything should be there. Also if you close Neutron and restart it, now playing screen will not be blank and should have the last played song there.

theSplund
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:20 pm

Re: Contents of SD2 vanish occasionally (FiiO X5iii)

Post by theSplund » Mon Sep 21, 2020 9:06 am

WitzyZed wrote:
Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:18 pm
What I do is make both SD cards slots a single media library source in Neutron, & then make sure the LED for automatic rescans is disabled, and also the LED next to the SD cards (in Settings-> Media Library-> Sources).
Thanks WitzyZed. I did have both both SD cards slots, and the internal storage, set as a single media library source at first so I will look to going back to that.
Not being able to find any manual, I had (and still do have!) trouble figuring out how to disable auto scanning - I kept trying to toggle the LED against the 'Refresh the media library sources if a contents of the referenced directories changed' at the top of the Settings page which just confused me as it seemingly wanted to refresh itself automatically even if I disabled it (might have been my fat fingers ;) ). Anyhow, whilst writing this reply, I wondered if the best option be to leave the LEDs unchecked on that Settings tab and then refresh the library manually by lighting up the LED alongside 'Sources' from the top level menu, ie the one that has the icons for Genres, Years, Artist etc. ensuring that all of the source(s) (listed by clicking though to the next level) selected, however I see that any change made in this selection page effects the same in the Settings page and appears also to momentarily light the LED for auto-refreshing - confusing but I'll see how I go.
Thanks again

theSplund
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:20 pm

Re: Contents of SD2 vanish occasionally (FiiO X5iii)

Post by theSplund » Mon Sep 21, 2020 9:14 am

blaubär wrote:
Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:01 pm
It seems there are known issues with SD cards on FIIO X5III, see FiiO X5 III SD card issues
The chip that Fiio uses in the x5iii is not capable of supporting the two micro sd slots. As a result they basically hacked it in order to get them both to mount. This is why you'll see differences in behavior between the two card slots.
I did consider swapping but I had discovered the same information (my alter ego 'Paul_T' is coincidentally in the thread) - it seems to be a combination of the FiiO hack and Neutron spotting the card/slot 'going to sleep' - see WitzyZed's quote '
Quoting the knowledgeable “Prispewnic” who made the custom kernel for X5iii: This is not a feature of an android, but a separate chip for a second SD card. To save energy, when idle, it goes to sleep (DACs work according to the same principle), after which the card falls off. (Translated from Russian to English)
- now if there was a way to keep it 'awake'...

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